These were secured by a 44th minute goal from Mario Lamina, crowning a first-half Fulham display that demanded they go into half time ahead. A free kick from Fulham's right, poorly defended by Andy Robertson, who headed the cross downwards to the edge of the area, where Mo Salah struggled to bring the ball under control, it bouncing off his knees, culminated with Lamina taking the chance to sneak in and strike a low shot into the back of Liverpool’s net, goalkeeper Alisson Becker’s angles again looking wrong.
In fact, Robertson, Salah, Alisson and Gini Wijnaldum were the only first teamers starting for Liverpool today. Jurgen Klopp made seven changes from the midweek loss to Chelsea, bringing in Rhys Williams and Nat Phillips at centre back, Nico Williams replaced Trent Alexander Arnold at right back, Naby Keita and James Milner joined Wijnaldum in midfield, while Diogo Jota got a start up front alongside Xherdan Shaqiri and Salah.
Still, with all these fresh legs and players fighting for their Liverpool futures, the Reds showed little intent and intensity and Fulham looked comfortable in the first half, posing the greater threat, with former Evertonian Ademola Lookman causing Nico Williams all sorts of problems down the Liverpool right.
Some huffing and puffing in the first fifteen minutes of the second half saw Jota volley spectacularly from the edge of the area after a Nico Williams pull back, only for Fulham keeper Alphonse Areloa to parry well. Reinforcements arrived when Mané came on for Wijnaldum on the 62nd minute – but the Senegalese, apart from a looping header that came off the post, didn’t make the desired impact. Alexander Arnold put in some typically dangerous-looking balls when, on the 76th minute, he came on for Nico Williams and, replacing Milner, Fabinho, playing at the tip of Liverpool’s midfield, where he should’ve been playing for the last three months had Klopp not made the catastrophic decision to deplete Liverpool’s midfield by moving him into defence to cover for injuries to Virgil van Dijk, Joe Gomez and Joel Matip, in his 18 minutes on the pitch hinted, with his controlled and penetrating passing, at what Liverpool have been missing and why their decline has been so precipitous. It must be every Liverpool fan’s hope that Klopp recognises the terrible mistake he has made with Fabinho and rectifies it for the rest of the season.
Now that top four and qualifying for the Champions League seems an unrealisable goal, the rest of Liverpool’s season rests on doing well in this year’s premier European tournament. The Reds go into the last of 16 game against RB Leipzig on Wednesday two goals up from the away leg and barring a disaster – which, given Liverpool’s run of form, cannot be ruled out – will qualify for the next round, not that anyone would bet on Liverpool progressing further, especially with the prospect of coming up against teams like Manchester City, Bayern Munich, Chelsea and PSG, who would surely show the Reds short shrift.
